A black shadow falls over me. Overhead, Gemma appears on the back of a balira. The balira lets out a sharp, furious cry. I’ve never heard such a sound before from these gentle creatures. Its eyes gleam in the night, and it lunges down toward me. A sharp stab of anger surges through me at the sight of Gemma. I chose to spare you earlier. How dare you turn on me. If I had my power right now, I would attack her. The balira’s rage feeds me, returning some of my strength.
The balira spins so that its giant wings swing down toward us, threatening to send us flying through the air. A hand clamps down on my arm. It’s Sergio. “Get down!” he shouts, then shoves me aside. I throw my hands over my head and curl up as small as I can. Above me, Sergio sidesteps enough to let the tip of the fleshy wing swing past him. He grabs its edge. It yanks him into the air, and as the balira starts to soar up again, Sergio glides up from where he dangles from the wing.
I yank out the dagger at my belt. Almost immediately, though, the weapon unfurls right before me and vanishes into thin air. The Architect. Michel’s here. I whirl around, looking for him. At the last second, I see him rushing down toward me from the top of the arena’s stairs, my dagger now in his hand.
Energy builds in my chest again. I reach for him and lash out.
I don’t have enough strength to envelop him in pain, but I can fool him with my tricks. A quick replica of myself materializes and lunges at him with a scream. I scramble out of the way as Michel skids to a halt on the stairs, startled by the illusion of me. I rush up to him, take advantage of his hesitation, and grab my dagger out of his hands.
Then I wrap my arm around his neck and hold the blade to his throat. “Move, and I’ll kill you,” I snap at him. Then I raise my voice over the storm. “Stop!” I shout.
Farther down the stairs, Magiano and Lucent break from their duel for an instant. Lucent glances up at me through the rain. She’s breathing heavily, and one of her wrists looks bent at an unnatural angle. She has her powers back now, but she’s not using them.
Violetta makes her way up toward me. She holds a hand up to the sky, where Gemma’s balira soars by. She clenches her jaw and makes a fist. The creature shudders. Gemma lets out a faint cry as my sister yanks her power away. Her balira shudders—she struggles with Sergio. Then she loses her grip altogether on the balira. I can tell the instant it happens, because the beast suddenly starts to dive toward the water.
Gemma seems to regain control at the last instant. The balira pulls up. It slides one of its wide wings underneath Enzo. Water sprays as the balira’s long tail hits the lake.
“Let him go,” Lucent shouts at me.
I tighten my grip around Michel. Michel stays still. I hold the dagger far enough from his throat so that I don’t accidentally hurt him. The storm overhead shifts into a steady downpour.
“Where’s Raffaele?” Lucent shouts. “What did you do with him?”
I can feel the fear emanating from her. She thinks I killed him, perhaps that I slit his throat the way I’m threatening to do right now to Michel. I find delight in that, her fear of what I am capable of doing. “Find him yourself,” I snap back.
Lucent grits her teeth. She makes a move toward me, but stops when Magiano clicks his tongue in disapproval. He flashes his teeth in a grin. “Careful,” he says to her. “I keep my blades very sharp. It’s a nervous habit.”
She gives him a look full of dislike before turning her attention back on me. “Where’d you get your new crew?” she calls over the rain. “What do you want?” She spreads her arms. “We parted ways! You want your darling Enzo back? Is that what this is all about?”
Her taunt about Enzo hits home. I clench my teeth, then throw an illusion of fire around her. It circles her, mimicking the heat of a real fire, and closes in. She shields her face for a second as the scorching heat hits her. I let her think that the fire singes her, then pull it away. The flames vanish.
“I came to take the throne away from you,” I reply. “From Beldain. How dare you all think you can hand our country over to a foreign power! A foreign queen!”
Lucent looks genuinely confused. “You hated the Inquisition! You wanted to see the malfettos saved as much as we do. You—”
“Then why aren’t we allies, Windwalker?” I yell. “If we all want the same things, why are you my enemy? Why did you cast me out?”
“Because we couldn’t trust you!” she yells back. Her anger returns. “You killed one of ours! You betrayed us to Teren!”
“I had no choice.”
The tide of rage over her rises. “Enzo died because of you.”
“He died because of Teren,” I snarl. “Your precious Raffaele wanted me dead too! Have you forgotten that?”
“The throne doesn’t belong to you,” Lucent spits out. She clenches her sword tighter. “It belongs to the rightful king.”
My energy builds with my own fury, surrounding me in a cloud of darkness. “No—it will belong to your Beldish queen, not Enzo,” I snap. “There is no rightful ruler of Kenettra. Can’t you see that?”
I can be the rightful ruler. I can be the greatest ruler there ever was.
Something in my words hits Lucent hard. I feel a sudden rush of darkness in her, a deep hatred for me, and her lips curl up into a snarl. She makes as if to lunge at me, but her broken wrist suddenly jolts in pain, and she winces, clutching it. I keep my stranglehold on Michel.
A movement in the shadows of the arena behind Magiano catches my eye. It’s the bald boy, the new Dagger recruit named Leo. He darts forward toward Magiano, blade drawn, right as I scream out a warning.